Alberto Costa, MP for South Leicestershire, said the families of Pitchfork’s victims – Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth – and the wider public deserve to know at least the basic grounds for the decision to clear the 56-year-old for release.

The Parole Board recommended that Pitchfork, who was jailed in 1988, should move to an open prison in 2016 and then cleared him for days out of custody last year.

Colin Pitchfork has been cleared to take unescorted days out of prison

However, the revulsion over the imminent release of serial sex offender and London cab driver John Worboys over the past week has led for calls for a re-think, including more detailed disclosure of Probation Board recommendations.

The 60-year-old was convicted of 19 sex offences against women in London between 2002 and 2008 but is suspected of attacking more than 100 women. He has served approximately 10 years in jail.

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Mr Costa, whose constituency includes the villages of Enderby and Narborough where Pitchfork raped and murdered Lynda and Dawn, is to write to new Justice Secretary David Gauke to seek assurances that Pitchfork no longer poses a threat to women.

The Worboys case led to widespread revulsion (Image: Mirror)

He had sought similar assurances from Mr Gauke’s predecessor.

Mr Costa also told the Leicester Mercury consideration should be given to overturning the existing rules which prevent the disclosure of Parole Board decisions.

He said: “I am not expecting everything to be made public and I believe in the independence of the Probation Board.

“But in the Pitchfork case we have not seen the expert evidence. We have absolutely no way of knowing whether he has changed.

Lynda was Pitchfork's first victim. He raped and murdered her in November 1983

“There are some cases which are so heinous that there should be some accountability and the public can be assured it is safe to release this individual.

“The only way we can have that assurance is if the most important parts of the submissions to the Probation Board by or on behalf of Mr Pitchfork and which persuaded it to release him are made available.”